Club Lunch: In Order to Live: A North Korean Girl’s Journey to Freedom

Yeonmi Park is a North Korean defector and human rights activist who escaped to China in 2007 at age 13 with her mother and settled in South Korea in 2009. She came from an educated, politically connected family that turned to black market trading during North Korea’s economic collapse in the 1990s. After her father was sent to a labor camp for smuggling, her family faced starvation. They fled to China, where Ms. Park and her mother fell into the hands of human traffickers before escaping to Mongolia, and finally making their way to South Korea. She shared her harrowing experience at the talk. Ms. Park feels that her generation — often called the Jangmadang, or “Black Market Generation” — will be able to bring about permanent change in North Korea.

Ms. Park is now an advocate for victims of trafficking and works to promote human rights in North Korea and around the globe. She has spoken at international conferences including 2014 Oslo Freedom Forum, One Young World Summit in Dublin and International Students For Liberty Conference is Washington DC. The BBC had named her one of their Top Global Women. She is the author of “In Order to Live: A North Korean Girl’s Journey to Freedom”.